9486 in the collection
Virtual Schools, Real Businesses
As NCLB scares more and more parents out of public schools, outfits like K12 look more and more attractive. Since no reporters bother to look at the curriculum, I invite you to see my detailed analysis of the K-2 history offering--conducted for the Education Policy Studies Laboratory.
The Grade 2 list of topics definitely gives Standardistos something to aim for--and participating parents something to brag about.
Second Grade History scope and sequence
1. Getting Around This Great Big World
1. Getting Around the Globe
2. Way to Go: Directions
3. Our World: The Lay of the Land
4. What Is History?
5. What Is Archaeology?
2. Ancient Rome
1. Romulus and Remus
2. Horatius at the Bridge
3. Roman Republic and Cincinatus
4. Roman God and Goddesses
5. The Myth of Ceres and Prosperina
6. Roman Builders
3. Caesar to Augustus
1. Meet Julius Caesar
2. Crossing the Rubicon
3. Caesar Meets Cleopatra
4. 4. I Came, I saw, I Conquered
5. The Death of Caesar
6. The First Roman Emperor
4. Roman Empire and Roman Peace
1. Pax Romana
2. Birth of Jesus
3. Beginnings of Christianity
4. Nero and the Burning of Rome
5. Eruption of Mount Vesuvius
6. Bread and Circuses: Roman Amusements
5. Rome Divides and Falls
1. The Story of Saint Valentine
2. Rome Divides in Two
3. Constantine the Chrsitian Emperor
4. The Coming of the Barbarians
5. Attila the Hun
6. The Fall of Rome
6. Byzantium Rises
1. The Contributions of Rome
2. Constantinople: The New Rome
3. Justinian, the Just Emperor
4. Theodora: Actress to Empress
5. Hagia Sophia
6. Nicholas: The Children's Saint
7. The Early Middle Ages in Western Europe
1. The Barbarians Stake Their Claims
2. Angles and Saxons in Britain
3. How Arthur Became King
4. Guinevere Wins Arthur's Heart
5. A New Role for the Christian Church
6. Life in a Monestary
8. The Rise of Islam
1. Muhammad and the Beginning of Islam
2. Mecca: The Holy City of Islam
3. Islam Becomes an Empire
4. Many Mosques
5. A Muslim Story: The Hundredth Name
6. Baghdad: The Jewel of Learning
9. A World in Turmoil
1. Threat from the North: Viking Warriors on the Move
2. Viking Shipbuilders and Explorers
3. Viking Life
4. Viking Gods and Goddesses
5. Buried in Style
6. The Normans Invade England
10. The Feudal World
1. What Was Feudalism?
2. Building a Castle
3. Life in a Castle
4. What is Knighthood?
5. A Famous Knight: St. George and the Dragon
6. Supposing You Were a Serf
11. Crusades Abroad and Changes in Europe
1. Command from the Pope
2. Richard the Lion-Hearted and Saladin
3. The Legend of Robin Hood
4. King John and the Magna Carta
5. The Hundred Years War
6. Joan of Arc: The Girl Who Saved France
12. Medieval African Empires
1. Welcome to Africa
2. Ghana: Gold Kingdom
3. Sundiata: Liong King of Mali
4. Mansa Musa of Mali
5. Alll the Way to Timbuktu
6. Ibn Battuta: An Amazing Traveler
13. Medieval China
1. Remembering Ancient China
2. The Grand Canal
3. Buddhism in China
4. The Trading Tang: The Silk Road
5. Mulan
6. The Inventive Song Dynasty
14. Feudal Japan
1. Japan: The Island Kingdom
2. Shinto, An Ancient Japanese Religion
3. Buddhism in Japan
4. Feudal Japan
5. Life of a Samurai
6. Kublai Khan Attacks-Twice!
David K. Randall
K12's Ron Packard is winning the fight against the school establishment/
Ron J. Packard, the chief executive of K12, an online education company in Herndon, Va., is adamant that he runs a public school. "We are more public than any other public school in the country," he says. "You don't have to buy a million-dollar house in the suburbs to come to my schools. We take every child who comes, regardless of income, race or ability."
Teachers aren't thrilled about this competitor. The Chicago Teachers Union sued the Illinois State Board of Education in October 2006 in Circuit Court of Cook County, challenging the state's decision to send public education dollars to the not-for-profit Chicago Virtual Charter School. The union alleges that the school does not provide sufficient direct instruction by certified teachers and amounts to homeschooling at taxpayers' expense. K12 was paid $1.5 million last year to provide the curriculum, technology and management services for the charter school, and is on the hook to the school for any claims or challenges to its validity. The case is pending and the company won't estimate its potential loss if the Teachers Union were to win the case. But a similar suit in Wisconsin spurred that state's legislature to enact a law in April that allowed the Wisconsin Virtual Academy, another K12 partner, to continue to enroll students.
In an echo of the charter school movement of a decade ago, the fight boils down to money. When students abandon the blackboard for the flat screen, their schools lose up to 70% of the taxpayer money that attaches to them, Packard says. Rural districts, which depend more heavily than urban ones on state aid, are more fearful of losing those dollars, says Julie Young, president and chief executive of the Florida Virtual School.
School district administrators say it's not money they're fighting over, it's educational quality. "The drawbacks aren't around the programs being online per se but are around the lack of policy and oversight, which in a few cases brought into question the quality of a few online programs," says John Watson, a consultant in Denver who has done research and policy reports for clients including the University of California and the Colorado Board of Education. An audit by the State of Pennsylvania also found that several online charter schools received payments from school districts that were 30% higher on average than the costs to educate those kids.
The fighting will only get louder with the $300 million market for online school-age education growing 30% a year, according to the North American Council for Online Learning. Twenty-six states now have statewide virtual schools. Total enrollment nationwide is estimated to be 1 million students. The Florida Virtual School, established by the legislature in 1997, is the largest online public school program, with enrollment of 54,000 this year.
K12, with revenue of $140 million last year, operations in 21 states and the District of Columbia and an enrollment of 40,000, is the leader in the elementary-to-high-school online education market. It went public in December and enjoys a $650 million market value. Its sales have doubled since 2004 and analysts are bullish, predicting a $5 million net this year on revenue of $217 million.
Packard, 45, a former banker and McKinsey & Co. consultant, founded K12 in April 2000 and got it off the ground with $40 million in venture capital from such sources as Andrew Tisch of the Loews billionaire family, Larry Ellison of Oracle and Knowledge Universe, a for-profit education conglomerate chaired by Michael Milken. Knowledge Universe's $10 million investment in K12 is now worth $125 million.
Despite hostility from the education establishment, says Packard, his company has been "flooded" with résumés from teachers. K12 has 1,100 teachers teaching through its virtual schools, about 200 of whom are employed by K12.
"A lot of education groups are resistant to change," says Packard. "We view ourselves as a service for the public school system and not competition for public schools." That's a tactful way of describing what could be an ugly battle.
— David K. Randall
Forbes
2008-08-11
http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2008/0811/084_print.html
INDEX OF OUTRAGES
Pages: 380
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